Wireless networks typically follow one of two basic structures, fixed router based in which a backbone of fixed routers communicates with wireless nodes, and mobile router based in which the routers themselves are a part of the wireless node and form a self-configuring network of wireless links. In the mobile router based system, the routers are free to randomly move, leave and enter the system. Therefore, the mobile router based system links can change rapidly in both number and relative position. The links connecting nodes in a network is called a topology of the network. In an infrastructure-based system, a source wireless node communicates via a wireless link with a fixed router which in turn communicates within the infrastructure and further communicates via another wireless link to a destination wireless node. The source and destination wireless nodes communicate primarily through the fixed network topology. A mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) communicates primarily between wireless nodes, without a need for fixed routers. The topology of the MANET is self-configuring with the nodes themselves providing the routing function. The MANET does not require connection to a fixed router, but may be connected to a number of wireless networks (such as a cellular network) or to a number of data networks (such as the Internet).
The evolution and expansion of the Internet and networking has necessitated the expansion of internet protocols from IPv4 (having 4.3×109 addresses) to the most recent IPv6 (having 3.4×1038 addresses). This expansion in Internet protocols has increased the overhead necessary to implement current MANETs since by their original design they communicated at the Internet Protocol (IP) layer. One embodiment of the present invention addresses a fundamental limitation of the original and more recent MANET architectures.
There are a number of transmission protocols including unicasting, broadcasting and multicasting. Unicasting involves the sending of data from one source to one destination node, broadcasting involves the sending of data from one source to all destination nodes, and multicasting involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous transmission of data from one source to many destination nodes or from many sources to many destination nodes. The difference between broadcasting and multicasting is that with broadcasting, data is sent to all connected nodes while with multicasting, the data is sent to only a selected subset of all of the connected nodes. Unicasting requires that the source copy an individual data packet for each destination node allowing redundant copies of the same transmission to be sent on a link. Broadcasting a copy of the data to each node resulting in the data packet being sent along every link regardless of whether the data packet will be used at each node. Both unicasting and broadcasting protocols result in redundant or unneeded transport of data packets. Conversely, multicasting transmissions copy a data packet as close to the destination as possible, and only send the packet to addresses that are part of a multicast group. As such, bandwidth is conserved by an elimination of data transmission redundancy and unneeded transport. This aspect of multicasting is critically important in MANETs, which have limited bandwidth.
Unicasting primarily utilizes a transmission protocol referred to as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), whereas multicasting primarily utilizes a protocol referred to as User Datagram Protocols (UDP). There are several differences between the two protocols, but a main difference stems from a guarantee of delivery whereby TCP sends a receipt acknowledgement and UDP does not. Therefore, via multicasting, large amounts of data can be sent without using bandwidth for return receipts for each data packet.
IPv4 has a 32 bit binary IP address, and IPv6 has a 128 bit binary IP address. The IPv4 IP address has four sets of 8 binary bits, referred to as octets (10001100) separated by three decimals. Using the IPv4 protocol as an example, the IP address 140.179.220.220 is shorthand for 10001100.10110011.11011100.11011100. Each of the eight binary bits can have up to 28 or 256 values, spanning from 0 to 255. Therefore, the IP addresses can theoretically span from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.
An IPv4 IP address is comprised of two parts, a network address and a node address. The number of bits describing the network address defines the class of network and how many nodes can be utilized on that network. Of the IP address, the location of the first zero bit in the address determines the class of the network. If the first octet is less than 126, then only seven of the eight binary bits are required to describe the number which leaves the first bit as a zero. Such a scenario would indicate an existence of a class A network, represented by the following string: NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn, where the capital N's indicate the network identifier, and the lower case n's notate the node identifier. If the first octet falls between 128 and 191, then the first two binary bits describing the number are 10, with the zero falling in the second bit location indicating that the network is a class B network represented by the following string: NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn. If the first octet falls between 192 and 223, then the first three binary bits describing the number are 110, with the zero falling in the third bit location and indicating that the network is a class C network, represented by the following string: NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn. If the first octet falls between 224 and 239, then the first four binary bits describing the number are 1110, with the first zero falling in the fourth bit location and indicating that the network is a class D network represented by the following string: NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN. Class D addresses have been reserved for multicasting and include addresses ranging from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Multicast addresses are similar to IP addresses for individual nodes, but will not clash with node IP addresses due to the fact that the addresses are specifically reserved for multicast.
A common method of controlling network traffic is through the use of a subnet mask which allows identification of the network and node portions of the address. In a subnet mask, the network bits are represented by 1's, the node bits are represented by 0's and a bitwise AND is performed on the address. A class B address could be represented by 140.179.220.220 (10001100.10110011.11011100.11011100) and a default class B subnet mask would be 255.255.0.0 (11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000). A bitwise AND requires both compared bits to be 1's to return a result of 1, so applying the bitwise AND to the class B address would return values only where the subnet mask had a 1, in this instance 140.179.0.0 (10001100.10110011.00000000.00000000). Submasking the first four binary bits of the multicast address still allows it to be identified as a multicast ID, while allowing the remaining 28 bits to be used for addressing. In the present example, the subnet mask for the multicast address would be 240.0.0.0 (11110000.00000000.00000000.00000000) resulting in 2.6×108 possible multicast addresses to choose from.
MANETs are mobile networks that include nodes, such as host nodes, that can dynamically join and leave the network. It is not possible to centrally administer multicast addresses in such networks as it could be in a fixed router based system. Therefore, in such a scenario, a MANET would be required to administer itself.